Maya nods. "And I likely take Water, Nature, or Earth. I probably fit Nature the best of any of us five, but Sable can cast it with her balanced wand. I like Earth's common uses better, and mesh particularly well with Water's attitude."

Hailey paces a bit. "Neo'll have the easiest time with Lightning's mindset, but she won't like the magic. She'd like air better."

"And Ruby can handle Lightning's state of mind reasonably well for the sake of projects."

Hailey nods. "So Neo takes Air and Ruby takes Lightning. I'm on Fire, and you take Earth because I know you can stretch to that perspective, and you'll be a lot happier with the magic. Sable can cover Water and Nature for now."

"Yes, and it will be some time before we have any need for the Quilting or concealment of Dark, I suspect."

Maya notes the tentative assignments down.

Meanwhile, Ruby and Neo have explored everything on this level. Hm. She watches the hatches to see if and when the fog recedes enough to allow her to explore there too. If both hatches clear at the same time, she'll try the lower one first.

The fog swirls, seemingly unaffected. The ritual description didn't mention how fast it would recede, or even how long the ritual would take, just that the casters should channel until the Mana Font stops filling, that this takes longer and requires more complexity the more full it was when you started, and that the high end of possible durations is "a few hours".

Neo pouts at the fog.

Then she gets up and leads Ruby back to the initial room they arrived in to confer with Hailey and Maya. They debate elements while they wait, and intermittently read more of the book.

Each student begins as an Initiate, strongest in their wand's element but capable of casting and learning every other element as well. A student's growth will depend on quickness of mind, alignment with elemental mindsets, and the quality of their wand.

Once a student has reached the initial limits of their growth, they can accelerate their mastery over a secondary element by Apprenticing in it at an appropriate elemental focus (see page 48). This may restrict their mastery of some tertiary elements, potentially allowing them no more than the minimum I am capable of - though a strong student may partly overcome that obstacle.

An Apprentice, or later Magister, is traditionally known by a title depending on their primary and secondary elements. As I have neither, I am thankfully spared this indignity. Still, for posterity, I will preserve the list here. You need not make use of these titles and in fact I encourage you not to. In short, one whose primary and secondary elements are identical is a Something-mancer, one whose primary and secondary elements are adjacent is a Conjurer, one whose primary and secondary elements are opposed is a Sorcerer, and one whose primary and secondary elements are none of those things is an Arcanist.

Primary Fire / secondary Fire: Pyromancer. Accelerated greatly in Fire; restricted in Water and Dark.
Primary Fire / secondary Lightning: Heat Conjurer. Accelerated in Fire and Lightning.
Primary Fire / secondary Air: Blazewind Arcanist. Accelerated in Air and slightly in Fire; restricted in Dark and Nature.
Primary Fire / secondary Water: Steam Sorcerer. Accelerated in Water and slightly in Fire; restricted in Dark and Earth.
Primary Fire / secondary Dark: Smoke Sorcerer. Accelerated in Dark and slightly in Fire; restricted in Water and Lightning.
Primary Fire / secondary Nature: Flamethorn Arcanist. Accelerated in Nature and slightly in Fire; restricted in Water and Air.
Primary Fire / secondary Earth: Lava Conjurer. Accelerated in Fire and Earth.

Primary Lightning / secondary Fire: Heat Conjurer. Accelerated in Lightning and Fire.
Primary Lightning / secondary Lightning: Thundermancer. Accelerated greatly in Lightning; restricted in Dark and Nature.
Primary Lightning / secondary Air: Tempest Conjurer. Accelerated in Lightning and Air.
Primary Lightning / secondary Water: Boltgeyser Arcanist. Accelerated in Water and slightly in Lightning; restricted in Nature and Earth.
Primary Lightning / secondary Dark: Deathcurrent Sorcerer. Accelerated in in Dark and slightly in Lightning; restricted in Nature and Fire.
Primary Lightning / secondary Nature: Frenzygrowth Sorcerer. Accelerated in Nature and slightly in Lightning; restricted in Dark and Air.
Primary Lightning / secondary Earth: Joltsoil Arcanist. Accelerated in Earth and slightly in Lightning; restricted in Water and Dark.

An Apprentice who has reached the limits of their growth - or an impatient Initiate - may partake of the Graduation ritual (page 16) to become a Magister. As heir to my wand, you begin as a Magister already. A Magister may still grow in their mastery of elements, but it will take them decades to achieve what a student could achieve in days or weeks; it is advised, therefore, to wait until a student has gone a full week without increasing the depth of their channel for any element before graduating them. In trade for the slowing of their direct growth, a Magister gains finer control over their channeling, and will have a much easier time performing delicate tasks such as cooking, alchemy, and complex rituals. Traditionally, only a Magister may teach, but I judge that in extremity an Apprentice or even a bright Initiate can serve nearly as well.

Oh fascinating. They can each take a second, as they learn more? She would prefer Fire for her secondary, and suspects Ruby would like Air. 

Yep! She'll take Air for her secondary.

Hailey goes for a Lightning secondary just on vibes.

And Neo decides she kind of likes the attitude and movement of Water? And healing's alright.

The Repel Fog ritual turns out to take just over half an hour under current conditions. It's a little tiring, but bearably so.

The moment it finishes is tangible to Sable as an abrupt release of tension, a pulling-away or closing-off of the pathway through which she was channeling magic into the Mana Font. To everyone else, it's audible as a rush of distant wind, and visible as a beam of sunlight through the porthole in the upper hatch.

The crystal at the bottom of the Mana Font has filled with blue light to a depth of maaaaaybe four inches. There is a whole lot of Mana Font left to fill.

Also, Sable feels a bit low on mana, a sort of hollow sensation located in the part of her mind she's been channeling all this magic out of. It might be time for the Restoring Mana procedure scribbled in the margin of the wands section, which approximately says to reach out through your wand like you're trying to find a target to channel magic into, connect to the Mana Font or a secondary reservoir, and pull. It shouldn't take more than a few seconds to refill even a very depleted mage.

Yes, she's interested, but what does the book say about natural regeneration, and will that deplete the Mana Font meaningfully?

What does the book say about natural regeneration: if she looks hard enough, a brief footnote about mana reserves being renewed by sleep.

Depleting the Mana Font: contextually it doesn't sound like it? In the section about secondary reservoirs there's some math about the ratio between the mana spent by the mage charging the reservoir and the mana gained by the mages using it, which is already pretty favourable (a skilled Lightning mage can fill one with barely a smidge of their mana, and it'll fully restore the mana of five or ten more mages before it needs recharging), but there isn't any such math about the Mana Font - which implies that whatever depletion it's experiencing, it's either immeasurably small or at least so negligible that Magister Aspen didn't feel a need to bother writing it down.

Okay, then sure, she'll recharge her mana from the Font. She's got a lot of things to spend mana on today, judging by the mental notes the other girls were sharing as they worked.

Restoring her mana is a pleasant, refreshing sensation, not unlike a cool drink of water on a hot, thirsty day. The Mana Font is not visibly affected.

Now that the fog has been pushed back, the sun is streaming in the upper hatch, and the view through the lower hatch is still dark but no longer swirling ominously. Where would they like to explore first?

"I wanna go upstairs."

"Downstairs might have existing artifacts we need."

Neo frowns for a moment, feeling out her abilities from her kitsune side, then conjures an illusion of Sable's wand, tilting her head curiously.

"Neo is right, the artifact we need most is a wandcrafter."

"Which is made from a sapling and would probably die if left alone too long so upstairs."

"Ruby's right, unless we wanna split up. Hailey, Neo, y'all check downstairs, I'll look for a suitable sapling upstairs with Ruby and Maya, and if y'all find a wandcrafter or anything else important you ping us mentally?"